


Daydreams

by connorssock



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Bittersweet, Daydreaming, Gavin Reed Being an Asshole, Imagined world, Imagines relationship, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Mpreg, Suicide, What Ifs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:40:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21978226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/connorssock/pseuds/connorssock
Summary: Even after the revolution androids were not welcome amongst humans. What Nines lacked in real life, he found he could have in his daydreams.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 23
Kudos: 130





	Daydreams

Even after the revolution, an android’s life was not easy. Nines was thrust into the DPD, assigned to a partner who not only distrusted him but also hated androids. Despite his best efforts, Nines was struggling to fit in. He didn’t make friends, could only watch as Gavin laughed with the other humans. How Chris gave him a wide berth, went around a desk just to avoid crossing paths with him. Tina pointblank ignored him. It hurt. Deviancy meant that Nines was left to drown in his emotions, alone and without help. It only made sense that he tried to concoct a happier reality.

At first, it was innocent enough. While in stasis, he let his preconstructions play out scenarios in real time, where he was standing amongst the circle of humans, was part of their little unit. Those 20 minute spates of daydreams were the best parts of the day. When Nines felt like he was wanted, fit in.

Moments from the day that he had seen began to surface in his daydreams. Gavin’s smile at Tina was directed at him. The friendly pat on the back Ben gave Chris turned into the phantom of a hand on Nines’ shoulder. Slowly, Nines’ processors managed to stretch time. What was 20 minutes in the real world was no longer that long in a day dream. It became half an hour. Then an hour. Soon, Nines could spend a whole day at the DPD amongst his friends while he was in stasis.

An accidentally overheard “hey baby” from Gavin as he picked up his phone set the daydreams off into a whole new direction. Nines found that he could daydream without stasis. And that he was entering stasis more frequently and for longer than his systems required. However, it didn’t impact on Nines’ work, nor did it affect his relationships with his coworkers so he didn’t see the need to change his habits. Especially not when the “hey baby” was a greeting Gavin threw his way in his preconstruction. A soft, lopsided smile accompanied with a crinkle of the corner of his eyes made him look radiant.

After that, Nines slowly built up a relationship with his Gavin. His awkward advances were greeted with patient, delighted grins. The potted plant Nines gifted him was proudly displayed on his desk. The coffee he made in the morning was gratefully downed then Gavin talked him through how to make a cup that was actually palatable. Their hands brushed more than necessary but neither of them minded. When Nines came out of that daydream, he was only moderately sad to note that there was no potted plant on Gavin’s desk. And he was still none the wiser about how his partner actually took his coffee.

However, his daydreams made it easier to cope with the day to day. Nines could deal with being dismissed, ignored, shunned because he knew that as soon as he had time, he would be going back to his friends. To Tina who laughed at his jokes, Chris who eagerly showed him the baby pictures on his phone. And then there was Gavin too. Who was happy to hold his hand, kiss his knuckles and was slowly working their way up to a chaste, dry brush of lips against lips. That was where Nines was truly happiest. His reality could be tolerated because each stasis granted him another day with those who cared about him.

In the daydreams, life progressed. Nines spent longer and longer there with each stasis until he could do a whole week during a 20 minute stasis. Which meant that spending a whole day in the precinct that was cold, unfriendly and never as warm as his one so much more bearable. In the daydream world, technology progressed. Nines could buy upgrades to his chassis. Not to just sexually satisfy Gavin but also to start a family with him. The first time Nines had a wet dream, he woke from stasis with a jolt. There was nothing between his legs to give away what he had been thinking about but his systems were still singing with echoes of pleasure.

It became a regular occurrence and Nines learned how to give no outward sign of what his body was up to in his dreams. No overheating, no awkward jolting, nothing. He was as stoic and still in his stasis as he was before this new development. The other development was in his dreams. There, Nines had been able to get the upgrade that enabled him and Gavin to have children. He didn’t question to logistics of an android and a human man coming together to create life. Especially not the fact that it was Gavin who was slowly rounding out with their child.

In Nines’ world, Gavin was happily working at the DPD, content to stick to paperwork to keep their child safe. He knew that it was all a fabrication. That it had all taken a firm step away from reality at the point he was invited to Gavin’s flat all those months ago. In the cold harsh place that was Nines’ real life, he had never been even close to Gavin’s home. The house he lived in within Nines’ mind was a complete fabrication. But Nines couldn’t bring himself to care. Not when his Gavin offered soft touches and sweet kisses each time they saw each other.

Case in point, Nines had helped settle Gavin in the corner of the kitchen unit, legs spread and heavily swollen stomach clad in denim dungarees. The space between his legs was just enough for Nines to stand between, one hand resting on his stomach while another offered a bowl of porridge topped off with a few nuts and bolts. To ensure the healthy growth of their child. It was dream logic but Nines just went along with it, watching as Gavin happily crunched away at it.

“I wish you could stay forever,” Gavin hummed into his bowl. “I know you have a job, that you need to leave. But you always come home so sad.”

He wasn’t wrong. Nines had offered Gavin in real life a healthy lunch and got snapped at. It was Nines’ fault, he had forgotten that his partner Gavin couldn’t care less about healthy lunches. Especially not from a filthy android. But Nines had a lapse of concentration. He’d even found himself smiling at Tina who muttered a “creepy, whatever” under her breath and walked away. Whenever such things happened, Nines always returned to his home in his dreams a little more subdued. It was rapidly remedied, he had more than two weeks with his family and friends during a twenty minute stasis now. And that time was only steadily going up, his processors able to fire up scenarios quicker and quicker as he got more familiar with it all.

By the time Gavin was waddling around the precinct, heavily pregnant, Nines barely remembered what was reality whenever he pulled out of stasis. He heard grumblings from Gavin and Fowler about being sent off for a diagnostic given how much time he spent in stasis. However, it still didn’t impact on his work so Nines was allowed to continue with only a verbal caution. That evening, his own Gavin settled against him, warm and solid, so full of life that Nines almost believed he was real.

The nine months of a normal pregnancy had probably sailed by but there was no sign of their baby. Once Nines sat down to consider it, he realised that he had no idea what would happen then. And he found something incredibly pleasing about Gavin’s form when heavy with their child. So he’d subconsciously been keeping him in that state, enjoying the benefits of it all without the consequences. In a way, Nines thought he ought to feel guilty about it. The real Gavin had no clue what Nines was indulging in and fantasies he was living out in his daydreams. But no harm had come to the real Gavin. It didn’t affect anything other than made Nines able to continue with his day to day tasks without breaking.

The mutters of “fucking androids” and “plastic prick” in the cold, harsh light of the real DPD began to hurt more even if Nines had no way of showing it. He had become almost silent, doing his job but not engaging any further than that. His charging station had been put set up out of sight and he was grateful for it. After a particularly distressing case where the humans had been ordered off to mandatory psych. appointments, Nines sat in his charging station, curled up and trying to force himself into stasis.

“Why do you keep doing this?” It was Gavin’s voice but Nines wasn’t in stasis yet. He knew it wasn’t the real Gavin, the man never showed him so much warmth in his words, let alone asked him anything outside of something relevant to a case. No, this was his own Gavin, the one who loved him, who cared for him.

“Come home Nines. It won’t hurt, I promise.”

Even though Gavin didn’t say what wouldn’t hurt, Nines knew exactly what he meant. It wasn’t the first time he had contemplated pulling his regulator out. Only, this time the temptation was stronger.

“I would only have two minutes,” he mumbled back.

“I know.” His Gavin huffed as he settled on the floor next to him. Nines could see through his preconstructed form. “But in our time, that’s enough to raise a family, live a happy life together. We could grow old. That is what you have been working towards this whole time, isn’t it? To have a lifetime with us in two minutes.”

Nines would have been a liar if he had said he wasn’t tempted. His fingers toyed with the buttons of his shirt.

“Come home to us,” Tina urged from his other side. Looking around, Nines could see his friends surrounding him, beckoning him home. He realised he was already halfway to stasis. Just aware enough of his surroundings to be able to undo his shirt, grip his regulator and pull. It wouldn’t take much. Forcing himself to look through the preconstruction of his friends, Nines looked around his charging station. There was nobody around. The lights were set to low levels for the night. Dust had gathered around his station, not even the cleaner really bothered with maintaining an android’s space.

Mind made up, Nines settled down on the floor, reached a hand for his Gavin who gripped it in his two. Nines’ other hand reached for his shirt, deftly undid the buttons. He gripped the edges of his regulator and allowed it two more beats to look at the family he had built for himself. A smile curled his lips upwards. He was coming home.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm also hiding out on tumblr as @connorssock


End file.
